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The Battle of Teacher vs. Student
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Dr. Rebecca Bell
Dr. Bell is a Licensed Educational Psychologist in the San Francisco Bay Area. When she was little, she loved school so much, she played it on the weekends. Now, she works with kids who hate school and writes about it in her blog, Notes From the School Psychologist.
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Aha! After many painful hours of searching YouTube for awful teacher-student interactions, I found a clip to illustrate how I might do an observation and consult with the teacher. This is a clip from a mockumentary (fake documentary) in England of a teacher-student interaction gone awry. It isn’t that far off from some teacher-student interactions I’ve observed. And if you are reading my blog from work or around small children, you may want to turn down the volume! I apologize in advance for the cursing. But it’s not that uncommon in these interactions, so it stays.
What would you do if you were the teacher? What would you do if you were the school psychologist?
Of course, in reality, I would collect information from the kid’s cumulative folder to see if this behavior is historical or new, observe him in other classes, interview his teacher to get a sense of the frequency, intensity, and duration of these types of incidents, and obtain information from the family if there are any recent stressors in the student’s life or ongoing disabilities that may be triggering his reaction. For the purpose of this post, let’s assume this is a brand new problem that only occurs with this teacher and there are no other external factors causing the behavior. It’s never that simple, but let’s pretend. It’s fun.
Now here’s what I observed. My framework is a Functional Behavior Analysis—basically that every student’s behavior serves some function. If you look at the reason a student may be acting out, it’s usually to get something or escape something. The way you figure out the function is to observe the sequence of events—the Antecedent (what happens before), the Behavior (what the student does) and the Consequence (what happens? What does the student get or get out of?). It’s often called the A-B-C model among school psychologists.
Continue reading on the next page.
struggling_man
2 months ago
4 comments
Dear Dr. Bell,
What is the antecedent? Perhaps confusion or reluctance to do the assignment. Obviously, the student is not on task. Jonah is definitely NOT isolated in his teacher's "timeout" chair. Wouldn't a behavior contract and relevant assignments be more appropriate? I think apprenticeships would be more appropriate as opposed to traditional school for some children. Seat work stinks! Teaching the essential questions as many administrators mandate isn't working! Again, what is the antecedent? Boredom I'd say. Parental involvement is essential, but finding the antecedent is something of a challenge for me.
ag_bergara_bella
2 months ago
6 comments
I still think that any misbehaviour displayed by a student in class often results when the child is not on task, and this is the crucial time when the teacher has to think of ways to engage all her students, even to the extent of isolating Jonah to do an activity that would preoccupy him. The teacher should plan her activities carefully, knowing fully well how Jonah tends to get off-task most of the time. If she needs to talk to this so-called "disruptive" student privately, she should convey to him her expectations and how she finds the student's behaviour disrespectful. She should have been stern and firm from the start, not allowing this kind of situation to turn sorely irritating. If the teacher's concern is really for this student to learn no matter how disagreeable he can sometimes be, then she should enlist the help of the student's parents as well, other than the school psychologist's assistance. She should remain optimistic that he will "wise up" after being patient with him.
shapir22
2 months ago
2 comments
it is easy to say "the teacher should deal with Jonah" if you are not the teacher who actually has to spend hours andd hours with kids like Jonah. Learning tools to deal with such behavior is definetely a plus to SURVIVE in a high school but NOT enough. Parents and the community shouldbe educated as well so that we as teacher can help our sts UNLEARN the negative behavior that may cost them their future.
hoodbeau
2 months ago
2 comments
I'm a bit confused by philbetasigma's comment. I agree that the teacher needs tools and training on how to deal with the Jonahs of the schools/classes, but I feel that's what the article is about: giving teachers tools. I find it helpful that the article includes a video and an analysis because I think we learn so much by watching classroom interactions and analyzing.
phibetasigma
2 months ago
2 comments
As i read your analysis of the situation that occured in the classroom i can now totally understand why so many chidlren are placed into alternative education arenas. I understand teachers have difficulties at times with defiant children, but that is not just in the classroom that is in our very home as well. If we all could just look back to our very own education and the culture of the classroom and how our teachers created it , we could all agree that we have experienced a jonah in the classroom or even was jonah in the classroom. We had no time out or security escorts of classmates. But what we had was teachers willing to get involved with our parents if we did not act right in class. We also had teachers that had a no nonsence policy in their classrom. What i am saying is: 'before we can predict a behavior of a child is going to exhibit we must prepare a culture for that behavior to be exibited within' .If this teacher would have created an culture in the classroom some of these problems would have been put to rest before the behavior was is acted out. Example: When was it cool to wear a Cap in class or in a public building? AHH never. Also when was it right to put your hands on other students? Never. And when was it allowed for you to say things to adults that is down right disrespectful? It was done but so where you! So if we focus on the teacher and strengthen her skills in developing ways to strengthen the culture inside of the classroom it would help a great deal. We have come up with all of these amazing techniques to deal with kids and helping them and diagnosising them. But the fact is kids will still be kids, and in order to help them we must remind them who is leading and who needs to follow. We must stop giving teachers ways out of not dealing with the problem instead of dealing with the problems. As a teacher it is your goal to reach the children that people think they can't be reached. But alot of times what happens is teacher get frustrated with our Jonahs' of the world and then what happes is they stop comming to school and then find themselves in the streets doing crimes of some kind when they should be at school. And that is when they are placed in the "System". And education the right way is now lost. So who is really the blame? Is it the parents who allow Jonah to come to school and act out? OR Is it the teacher that didn't start earlier before these behaviors fester and run wild. Or maybe the teacher who tought our teacher's how to be teachers and did not educate them on the things that are not in text books such as how much about time and patience and extra little things that you may not be rewarded for but will bless you at the end you might have to do. Don't loose site of who are the Leaders of the classroom!
Just my thoughts Author Unknown
tumbalam
2 months ago
2 comments
what u said absolutely correct but we have to do something on this .......................u r looking very patience and exposing good character to all the students..............well, keep it up
neaglem
2 months ago
2 comments
Definitely an article for me!